Wheeler Not Among Senate Commerce Nominees Scheduled for Hearing

Senate Commerce Committee chair Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) has scheduled a May 22 nomination hearing for two new department chiefs, but it did not include FCC chairman nominee Tom Wheeler.

Rockefeller had said earlier in the month that he might schedule a Wheeler nomination hearing as early as the end of this month, and a source at the committee had suggested that might be packaged with that of Transportation secretary Anthony Foxx, whose nomination was announced in tandem with Wheeler's, and the Department of Commerce secretary Penny Pritzker -- Commerce overseas government spectrum holders.

But while Foxx and Pritzker will get a hearing May 22 and 23, respectively, there was no mention of Wheeler.

According to a source, that was not because the committee is waiting until a Republican has been named to replace commissioner Robert McDowell, who is also leaving at the end of this week, so that they can vet them together. Instead, he said, they just ran out of time before the Memorial Day week break and now it will be at least early June before they can vet Wheeler.